Recession by the Numbers: More jobless, Less Traffic

(Chicago Sun Times) — The recession caused the ranks of the poor to swell in Illinois last year, according to a wide-ranging Census Bureau report released Tuesday with data on Americans’ economic and social lives.

The number of people living below the poverty line in the state rose by nearly 8.5 percent in 2009, or nearly 131,000, to 1.68 million people from 1.55 million in 2008, the report revealed. Some 13.3 percent of residents in the state lived below the poverty level last year, up from 12.3 percent in 2008.